Rise of the damned
by Amithaba
Summary: Taylor hebert was a complexe person. Often depicted has a parahuman, she has been given many name: Skitter, Weaver, Kepri, Ashburn, Surtr and many more. In this particular dimension she was known as Ashkael, Leader of the Damned. Rated M because of paranoia.
1. Chapter 1

First I will start by saying that I don't own anything. Second it's my first time writing so please be indulgent please. Third I'm a lazy procrastinator and I will try to write one chapter a month but I promise nothing. Fourth I need proof reader so pm me please. Fifth I hope you enjoy yourselves.

 **Chapter 1 spark 1.1**

10 April 2011

The street was quiet, shrouded in a heavy silence that contrasted heavily with the scene that happened a few minutes ago. In my arms was laying the only truly important person in my life. Daniel Hebert, Head of the Dockworker Union, and more importantly my father, was nothing more than a pile of black charred flesh and cloth. A horrifying smell that reminded me of road kills left for days under the sun drifted from him and I could clearly see that the pieces of fabrics that didn't end up into ash had fused with his skin. His eyeballs had been melted, his right arm reduced to a bit of brittle bones and I barely caught myself before I saw more and looked at his head. On his face a hideous smile was present; I could read some pain and relief in it, despite his burns.

"Don't worry little owl, everything will be fine"

These few words, more than the rest brought tears to my eyes.

"You can't die dad. You can't leave me alone. Without you and mom I won't have anything left."

 ** _"_** ** _I'm sorry Taylor"_** said a voice in my head ** _"_** ** _If I had personally intervened from the beginning it wouldn't have happened"_**

 _"_ _Just tell me. Why didn't you do anything?_ _Why did you stay passive during the fight?"_

 ** _"_** ** _I wanted you to reconsider your choice. I wanted you to take a little beating and then intervene. I never wanted to drag him into this"_**

I didn't pay any more attention; I knew perfectly that it wasn't her fault but mine, just like with mom.

"You can't say that Taylor" weakly responded the dying, weakening rapidly "you must be strong … And live your life as you want. Sadly, both Annette and I won't be able to see you grow into a woman."

"No,no,no,no!" I started panicking as I felt his life weakening with each second "I will bring you to Panacea and she will heal you."

"It's too late. I have a few instant at most. Please, listen to me one last time. Whatever you want to do, don't give up and be happy"

I could feel his breathing becoming nonexistent. If I ran at my max speed I should be able to bring him to the hospital and save him.

 ** _"_** ** _It's useless Taylor there isn't anybody else that can help him."_**

"SO WHAT!?" I shouted aloud "Are you telling me to give up my only family? Are you saying that I should just wait and watch him die?" I sobbed, crushed by the brutality of the truth as I knew that I couldn't do anything for him.

 ** _"_** ** _I just said that nobody else could help him. But I can."_**

Two hours ago

I was really excited today; after all it was my first night out as a cape and I really, really wished that I wouldn't mess up or something. I prepared for two months before today and I was able to obtain some equipment for myself as well as some training in fighting. Despite all of those preparations I still couldn't find a name for myself. I really didn't want to have P.H.O dump me with a shitty name.

 ** _"_** ** _I still think that it's a stupid idea that will get you killed."_**

And there went my good mood. That deep and strangely androgynous voice had accompanied me for the three last month after the locker incident. Its owner called herself Ashkael and that was the only thing that I knew about her. At first I wasn't sure if that person was real or if I had some kind of personality disorder. The truth quickly came out after it helped me doing my homework and trained me in the art of swordsmanship and pyromancy.

" _I already told you that I didn't care about your opinion; and I don't think that trying to make the Bay a better place is stupid"_

 ** _"_** ** _I call Bullshit"_**

As much as it bothered me she wasn't wrong and we both knew it. We already had the same conversation a few dozens of times after all.

 _"_ _I do it to make the Bay a better place, for personal satisfaction and because years of bullying and a low self-esteem made me borderline suicidal. And before you say it; yes, I know that going out to fight criminal while wearing a disguise is ridicule."_

 ** _"_** ** _At least you learnt to be honest with yourself, but did you forget that if you die I die with you?"_**

 _"_ _From what I know you would be dead without me so you've got no right to complain. Moreover I'm quite strong so there shouldn't be any problems."_

 ** _"_** ** _There is always a bigger monster"_** mumbled Ashkael, ending our conversation.

After a bit of patrolling during which I didn't encounter anything, and I really didn't know if I should have felt happy or disappointed that nothing actually happened, I arrived at a place that seemed a bit more … agitated. Down in the street were a group of people, easily identifiable as member of the ABB, which seemed to prepare for some gang (and thus illegal) activity. Thought I couldn't be sure since I didn't understand what they said their tension could be felt from where I was. My doubts were completely crushed when I saw all the weapons. Damn, there were twenty-one gang members and all had some blunt or bladed weapons while sixteen possessed handguns and three even carried freaking _submachine-gun_!

 _"_ _Are you sure that the armor is bulletproof?"_

 ** _"_** ** _No, since I never fought against someone using one. But if everything we researched was accurate then they would need higher caliber or explosive to break through."_**

 _"_ _Well that's reassuring."_

 ** _"_** ** _Even in the best case this armor is at most a third rate product and wouldn't hold against sustained fire. Can't you reconsider this? Wait until we are more prepared, until you can use more of my power? I'm not saying this to scare you but something isn't quite right here."_**

 _"_ _I already waited three month for this, I am more prepared than the majority of the new cape and there are just some baseline humans with small firearms, just five minutes will be…"_ I stopped abruptly, finally understanding why her danger sense was tingling. As the gate of the building opened, a tall and shirtless man came out. He wore a stylized dragon mask and possessed an impressive musculature. Everybody in Brockton could give you is name: Lung the Dragon of Kyushu. He was tall, a bit more than one hundred and eighty centimeters, and his naked torso was covered in tattoos. I was overwhelmed first by a feeling of both terror and then by relief when I realized the deathtrap I just avoided.

 _"_ _Thank you for holding me back, if I actually went done I would be dead for sure."_

Preparing to run away a.k.a stay alive, I suddenly heard something that sent chills down my spine.

"And don't you dare hold back because they are kids, if you see the little fuckers, you shoot. And once they are down, you get close and shoot the head to be sure. Now we are going before they can run away."

No-fucking-way. Even Lung wouldn't be so low as to target kids. He's supposed to have some sense of honor after all. Thoughts were spinning in my head and I could clearly see some elementary school kids being shot by the ABB and devoured alive by the Bastard.

"Shit, no choices" I said in a low voice while I started to run.

 ** _"_** ** _Taylor! Stop!"_** but it was too late as I already jumped. Lung had a kill order and was planning to murder children and so I was prepared to kill him. I was ready to swing my blade at his head when, either because he heard me or was warned by some animalistic instinct, he throw himself on the right where nobody blocked his movement. My strike missed its original target and opened a deep gash on the back of the thug preceding Lung, cutting flesh and bones and showering me in blood.

" It's a cape!"

"Where did he come from?"

"Matsuda! Shit!"

I felt ill and during my moment of hesitation the asian parahuman got back on his feet and throw a punch at me with an angry roar. I was able to avoid the hit thanks to my enhanced reflexes but the gap in experience was immediately shown by the difference in our reactions. I suddenly received a hit in the head that nearly sent me sprawling on the floor with what could only be a crowbar. " _Right"_ , I remembered, " _there are still the minions"_. Thinking quickly despite the ringing in my head, I found a way to get rid of them and put some distance between me and the rapidly growing beast before me. I concentrated on the feeling of power inside me and I pulled _,_ forming a fireball of thirty centimeters in my right hand. I compressed it to a size of ten centimeters and pitched it at Lung just at the time when the thugs finally aimed at me. You see, when you are shown an explosion on TV it tends to produce a giant flame and nearly no shock. It didn't happen like that this time. The impact was colossal and projected the Dragon trough the wall behind him and probably some others. I just had the time to brace myself and stab my sword in the ground before the impact reached me. While I mainly charged the attack with kinetic energy, the temperature reached roughly six hundred degree Kelvin and I was sure that quite a few of the goons had burns along with ruptured eardrums and concussion. Feeling sick and deciding that I had attracted enough attention for my first night, I jumped with all my strength and was able to latch on the emergency ladder before climbing and throwing myself on the building. I got on my feet just in time for the roof to literally _blow up_ and project me over the edge, on the street. How the fuck did he knew where I was!? Scratch that, how did he get back up that fast? His regeneration is supposed to be weakened while he's not transformed!

 ** _"_** ** _This isn't something that you can fight by yourself, the last impact cracked the armor and without it you will not be able to take even one hit from him. Moreover you're no longer insensible to heat and fire, only resistant"_**

 _"_ _You seem awfully calm."_

 ** _"_** ** _Make war for more than a thousand years and you will learn to always remain calm. Be careful, he's coming."_**

Just after the warning I saw a form moving in the dust and I quickly jumped backward as the beast smashed the asphalt where I was an instant ago. The fight started not even five minutes ago and the bastard was already three meter high with metallic scales covering is body and claw sprouting from his fingers and toes. He was hunched with his arms reaching nearly the floor and his mouth extended from ear to ear and, filled by razor sharp teeth. The reptilians' eyes looking at me were filled with wrath and scorn .Lung, for the first time this night, actually talked to me.

 **"** **Did you really think you could escape after sneak attacking me?"** spat the Chinese **"** **You killed my men, hurt me, and you thought that I would let you escape? I will enjoy your cries."**

Lung slowly walked toward me, waiting to be close enough to strike at me while I tensed up and prepared to try to cut one of his legs to slow him down and escape. Just as I decided to restart the fight, a truck which the approach has been hidden by the dust and sound of the collapsing building, violently slammed into Lung and sent him flying in a second building across the street. I looked dumbfounded as the conductor of the vehicle jumped from the cabin and ran toward me. It took me all five seconds to recognize my father and one of the trucks used to move shipments a few years ago.

"Dad?" I was so shocked that I forgot to scream." What are you doing here?"

"Quick, we need to flee…"He never got to finish his sentence.

The world slowed down as a monstrous screech echoed in the street, breaking a few windows, and a literal pillar of flame engulfed both the truck and my dad. I could hear his screams as the flames consumed him, I could see his form falling on the floor while contorting in pain. Lung got out of the burning building looked at my father and he _laughed_ , the sound reminding one of a chainsaw on rocket fuel. I didn't care. My dad was dying, burning like a match. I ran to him, not daring to touch him in fear of hurting him even more. Lung took his time and slowly walked toward me. He talked to me when he got close enough to tear me with his claws.

 **"** **You bore me little girl"**

I then looked at him, all the anger, despair and self-loathing concentrated in a single word.

"Die."

A second wave of flame, dark red, erupted from me and rushed at the beast. At first the dragon looked smugly at me but his face changed quickly when he realized two facts: he was truly burning and he was not healing. He started screaming again, but in pain this time, and was uselessly flailing his limbs around before actually bolting away, fleeing from me, and disappearing in the night. Not paying attention to him, I got closer and took what was left of my father in my arms while he started telling me his last words.

I'm not dead just lazy. My inactivity aside I rewrote this chapter and changed some elements that didn't go well with the story (Taylor definitely doesn't have enough strength to jump to the top of a building and I also changed the date to fit with the original timeline). I think I will do so for all the chapters, especially the 3.5.

Have a good day.


	2. Chapter 2

First I don't own anything. Second I forgot to say that English is not my first language. Third this story is a crossover but the second category didn't exist and I don't know how to create a new one. Fourth I need proof reader so pm me please. Fifth I hope you enjoy yourselves.

 **"** **Inhuman being talking"**

 _"_ _Mental conversation "_

Emphasis

 **Chapter 2 spark 1.2**

10 April 2011

 ** _"_** ** _I just said that nobody else could help him. But I can."_**

The dark thoughts that ran around in my head brutally came to a halt and it took me a few seconds to understand what Ashkael said.

"Please, save him" I begged aloud, completely ignoring the fact that I looked liked a nutcase talking to herself"I will do anything you want so please help me."

 ** _"_** ** _I can help him, not save him"_**

I suddenly felt apprehensive at those words.

 _"_ _What's the difference?"_

 ** _"_** ** _It depend how you see the meaning of the words. With my abilities he will retain his personality, his memories and his feelings but we will have to discard both his bodies and his humanity. If I were able to do those two things then I would have said that I could save him."_**

 _"_ _What do you mean by "humanity"?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Part of what make you human is your perspective and your thought process, the procedure will give him a whole new body and with it new sensations that will lead to a new perspective. Moreover, while things like feelings will remains others like social conditioning will be eroded and progressively disappear. Those factors will lead to the slow loss of his humanity"_**

After seriously listening I thought of many things. What gave me the right to chose for him? Would he still be himself? Does he even want to be saved? Would he hate me? Those questions swirled in my head and I finally came to a conclusion.

 _"_ _Please save him."_

 ** _"_** ** _Are you sure about that?"_**

 _"_ _Yes. I know it's selfish to take this decision for him but I don't think that I can go on without him. After all even if he is angry at me or stop being human he is still my father."_

 ** _"_** ** _Since you say so… We will need to do it together if we want it to works."_**

 _"_ _How are we doing it?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Do you remember our first serious talk on my… our power?"_**

 _"_ _You told me about the brute/mover package, the abilities to create and shape some kind of metal, pretty strong pyrokinesis, and some type of reality manipulation that I still don't understand and you said that I wasn't ready for the last."_

 ** _"_** ** _The last one is extremely dangerous because it's something that can easily kill you if used incorrectly or worse corrupt and mutate you into an abomination. Moreover it's extremely taxing mentally and physically."_**

 _"_ _Stop beating around the bush. Tell me what I must do."_

 ** _"_** ** _The last ability is the manipulation of the soul."_**

I thought I was prepared for everything that she was going to tell me about some kind of biokinesis or some kind of master abilities but that smashed all my preconceptions and throw them to the wind. What was she talking about !? Souls were real? She wouldn't joke in such a moment, I think. Breath Taylor, you just have to ask her.

 _"_ _What do you mean by that?"_ My tone was a bit tense, hoping that she would laugh and tell me the true way to help my father.

 ** _"_** ** _Every living being has a soul, from the smallest dust mite to the biggest whale. Though it's not an exact science and single celled organisms and smaller don't really count. Anyway the principle is simple, we will take your father's soul with us and we will create him a new body that can house him."_**

 _"_ _You want_ _me_ _to take away my_ _father's soul_ _?"_ I asked, insisting on the lasts words.

 ** _"_** ** _Only for a few hours and I will make sure that you don't end up consuming him"_**

Consuming my father's soul. That sent chills done my spines, not only would I be responsible for his death but I would destroy his soul completely.

 _"_ _I'm not sure that I want to continue"_

 ** _"_** ** _You chose to help your father, does the mean really matters? Moreover all the others abilities are just a side effect, the main power you gained when I possessed your body were the manipulation of souls. It's the main reason why you still have control of your body even thought my soul is vastly stronger than yours. I simply didn't mention it because I didn't think you were ready."_**

 _"_ _You're right… How are we doing this?"_

 ** _"_** ** _You first need his consent. Without it you won't have enough leverage to continue."_**

 _"_ _And how do I do this?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Just ask him"_**

I braced myself and gently shook my father's body to get his attention. Seeing that he still breathed but didn't answer, I understood that it wouldn't be enough and started using more power and finally wrenching his arm out of his socket. He suddenly opened his eyes while hissing his pain and turned toward me, the burnt skin on his face cracking into a vague frown.

"What do you want Taylor?" his voices was weak and rasping, contrasting with the strong and clear voice of the Union's Head or the gentle and warm voice of the father.

"Dad, I will ask you something extremely important, even if you think that it's utter nonsense, please answer as if it was real. I want you to promise me."

"I promise you" said the dying.

"Daniel Heber. Do you swear to give me your soul; to look after and protect me until either one of us disappears in the sand of time? "

He stayed still for a few seconds and then the tension seemed to bleed from his body.

"Yes, I do."

At those words, my father life finally left his body and the corpse in my arms turned inert. I was fighting the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes until I felt something touch my mind. It seemed weary and was currently asleep. I could feel depression, sadness, self-hatred but also contentment from it.

 _"_ _Ashkael, is this..?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Yes, it's his soul. But there is something weird going on."_**

I suddenly panicked, imagining all the way it could go wrong.

 _"_ _What's happening? Am I trying to eat him? To destroy him? To enslave …"_

 ** _"_** ** _Stop right there, if something like that happened I would have already intervened. No, the opposite is actually happening."_**

 _"_ _What do you mean?"_

 ** _"_** ** _It's normally normal for new practitioners to mess up the first few times. To either harm the targeted soul by using too much or not enough power. Other simply doesn't know what to do with the soul and end up letting it disperse outside their body. But you, at the moment when the soul came under your power, you simply took it inside your body and sustained it with your own. You naturally used the just amount of power and the perfect procedure."_**

I felt my body slump on the ground, both being relieved and utterly exhausted, and the piece of charcoal in my arms hits the ground.

 _"_ _What do you think of it?"_

 ** _"_** ** _I think that your power isn't only the manipulation of souls, but perfect manipulation of souls. Your power probably deduce how much power is needed an how to reach the objective. In other words, if you think of it and you have enough energy to do it and you don't try to break some taboo, it will happen."_**

 _"_ _That's convenient."_

 ** _"_** ** _Yes. Rest for now. Using both the Divine Fire and soul manipulation for the first time today must have exhausted you. Oh and keep what's left of the body, it could be useful later."_**

 ****I stayed on the ground for two minutes, trying to replenish my stamina and disperse the fog that covered my thoughts, when Ashkael gave me a warning.

 ** _"_** ** _Prepare yourself, peoples are coming"_**

I just had the time to rise on my feet before three huge monstrosities jumped from a nearby rooftop and slammed before me. The monsters were big, their size halfway between a rhinoceros and an elephant. They looked like a crossbreed between a dinosaur and a beer, they lacked fur and their body was covered by a thick hide with bone protrusions popping at random. The thing that attracted my attention was their jaws. God, those were at least one meter large and one and half long with hundreds of sharp teeth and saliva dripping between them.

"Wow, it look like someone tried to burn some Asians, just like in Vietnam"

It's only after hearing talking that I saw the people riding the beats like some old westerns cowboys on horses. The most eye-catching was also the one that talked and looked like a renaissance comedian that time travelled to here. He wore a pristine white puffy shirt with some white pants, wore a golden Venetian mask and a golden crown sat atop his head while a scepter was held in his hand. He was currently eyeing the gang members that were sprawled on the ground a few meters away.

"Shut up Regent."

The second to talk was a man with a deep voice. He was big, not the fast food type but the MMA type, and wore a costume essentially composed of a motorcycle helmet stylized as a skull and a black leather biker ensemble. Turning toward me, he sized me up before asking me

"Are you the one that beat Lung?"

"I don't know" I answered warily «I hurt him pretty seriously and made him flee but I don't know if it was enough to truly put him down."

"It was her" Said a third voice "her attack ignored Lung resistance to fire and nearly turned is regeneration off, leaving him only his endurance to tank the blow."

The girl, the voice and blonde hair were an indication, wore a skintight outfit colored in purple and a crying/laughing mask. She dismounted the giant thing and walked toward me, extending her hand.

"Hello I'm Tattletale, the brain of the group. The Man in Black is our leader Grue, the silent one is Bitch or Hellhound on PHO" I heard a curse from the dog mask wearing girl "and you can ignore Regent since he's a straight white man. By the way we are the Undersiders."

"Hey I'm a Quebecoise! That counts as a minority."

"What our fearless leader doesn't tell you" continued Tattletale while ignoring the Canadian protest "is that Lung was after us tonight. We were able to take Oni-Lee on but we started to panic when we learned that the big guy was coming and we decided to meet him before he was amped up too much. We were pretty surprised when two blocks from here we saw a burning Lung leap from a roof and crash into the street. We waited a bit and the flame winked out, letting us see that the guy was knocked out and that his healing didn't work as well as it should. We followed his trail till here."

 ** _"_** ** _Taylor, they could be the kids that Lung mentioned."_** pointed my resident.

"Lung mentioned that he was going to kill some kids, could it be..?"

"Yes, it was probably us" responded the girl "and I am deeply sorry that you were dragged into this so tell us if we could do something to help you"

"Tattletale is right" said Grue, having dismounted during the conversation "We owe you a big one."

I started to relax until Regent pointed dad's corpse.

"Wow, you really did a number on this guy. Did you have a grudge or something?"

At those words a burning anger took me. It was my fault that my dad ended up like this but I wasn't the only culprit, after all Lung was reputed for his devil may care attitude. They were the ones that forced him to move, they were the ones that caused this fight between us and they are the ones responsible for my dad state. And after all that they come here smiling and looking at the result of the fight. I knew that they didn't know about all of this but it made me angry nonetheless.

 ** _"_** ** _You really should calm down if you don't want to fight again"_**

The phrase had the effect of a bucket of cold water on me. I instantly recognized the problem. It seems that in my emotional flare up I subconsciously started to burn in anger. Literally. On my whole body off colored flame started to rise, starting to burn the asphalt under me and giving me a very threatening aura. As for the Undersiders, they quickly responded to my seemingly random threat and started to prepare for a fight. Tattletale had retreated behind one of the monster along with Regent while Grue started to emit darkness from his body that rolled off him and pooled on the ground. Finally bitch started to whistle while pointing at me, prompting her three pets to tense up and growl at me. I calmed down and apologized.

"I'm really sorry for that, I'm not emotionally stable and he is an innocent that was caught in the crossfire. When you mentioned him I recalled what happened and started to let my anger out."

Seeing me act like this they significantly relaxed thought they remained cautious.

"Are you sure you're not going to turn psychotic pyromaniac on us?"

Regent received a kick in the shin for his comment and Tattletale restarted the conversation.

"Don't worry; we are at fault here too. We can't stay here because the heroes will arrive soon but if you want us to give you a ride we can bring you with us."

Both Grue and Bitch started to star at Tattletale, obviously opposed to this course of action but not saying anything yet. Surprisingly Regent seemed nearly enthusiast. A ride would have been good but I didn't want them to see me taking the burnt corpse. Talking about heroes, they could still do something for me.

"No thanks, I have my own way to move around. Still, can you call an ambulance? I don't have a phone on me and there are twenty-something gang members that were sent flying during the fight and one took a direct hit from my sword when I missed Lung."

The group seemed to finally relax completely and Tattletale answered me.

"Don't worry I will call them and tell them where the fight took place. We really must go; Armaster will be here in two minutes. "

They started to mount back on their ride and she told me one last thing.

"Look for me on PHO I really want us to meet again."

And just like that they were gone, the massive living tanks running down the street and jumping somewhere outside my vision field.

 ** _"_** ** _Well, that was quite nice, the whole Undersiders thing I mean, and it's good for you to make some contact with the local capes. Even if there not really a recognized power."_**

 _"_ _I guess so. Hey Ashkael, can you promise me something? Something we should have done from the start but that I ignored."_

 ** _"_** ** _And that is?"_**

 _"_ _After helping my father, can we just seat and talk? I mean a serious discussion about both of us."_

 ** _"_** ** _I can't really sit but I can talk. But don't expect me to answer all your questions."_**

I nodded, cutting our conversation. In the background I could hear the sound of a big motorcycle getting near. Taking dad's body, I jumped on the nearest roof and started heading back home.

I only changed a few words there and there. Nothing important.


	3. Chapter 3

First I don't own anything. Second I need proof reader so pm me please. Third I will put some author note for the less important stuff at the end of the chapter. Fourth I hope you enjoy yourselves.

 **"** **Inhuman being talking"**

 _"_ _Mental conversation "_

Emphasis

 **Chapter 3 spark 1.3**

11 April 2011

I only reached home at 3 a.m; it seems that despite my enhanced strength, trying to travel through half the city while carrying a burned body without being seen is still a difficult task. I would have been seen without Ashkael help. I immediately headed for the basement and letting go of my sword (I only thought of retrieving it thanks to my partner reminder) I deposed my dad's body on the floor and started to ask.

 _"_ _How is he?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Well, far better than he should. Normally a soul outside a vessel will deteriorate at varying speed, no matter how good you are with soul manipulation_** _._ _ **To quote PHO; your power is pure bullshit."**_

 _"_ _Well that's nice but what are we doing after that?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Before that you must understand a bit more about your powers. Normally, living beings can't even directly manipulate their soul, they can train it or draw power from it but that's all. Servants of Mortis and other necromancers are some exceptions. In my original world most people put themselves under the protection of a patron. This contract brings benefits to both parties; the vassal is given protection, training and a greater soul growth while the patron obtains an extended influence and the soul of the vassal when he dies."_**

I was becoming more frustrated as time passed but I knew that she wouldn't talk about something unimportant at a time like this. Taking a deep breath I continued the conversation.

 _"_ _What is a patron? And what's the connection with our situation?"_

 ** _"_** ** _A patron can be anything, the Hightfather, angels, demons, deities, dragons... The only requirement is the ability to manipulate both their souls and the souls of others."_**

Realization dawned on me, the promise I got from my dad must have created a contract between me and him.

 _"_ _What are the effects of the contracts?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Wait a bit, I will tell you. The process of the contract is simple, by accepting the contract the vassal is implanted with a fragment of the patron soul. That seed will grow along the soul of the bearer, granting him more power as time go by. The exact effect on the vassal depend entirely of the origin of the seed, someone that contracted an angel will see his appearance stay the same while his body will grow stronger and he will receive artificial experience, by contrast someone who contracted a demon will have a drastic change in appearance and will slowly become more violent and depraved."_**

 _"_ _And what will happen to my father?"_

 ** _"_** ** _I don't know and before you start yelling at me, listen. I am originally a Demon while you are a human. There is no way to know what will happen before we wake his soul and we need a new body for that."_**

 ** _"_** ** _Going back to the subject, the patron will lose a negligible amount of power after the contract but will gain quite a bit. First he has dominion over the soul; he alone decide if the soul disperse or not if it will gain back a body or he can simply_** **** ** _consume it to regain energy. Second he gains what I call_** ** _influence_** ** _over the world. Influence is the ability to use your energy to manipulate the world and it is directly dependent to both the number of servants you posses and the power of your soul. It's that phenomena that grant you super-strength, pyrokinesis and all you other power."_**

 _"_ _So in practice my father is a complete unknown while as far as I am concerned more minions mean more power?"_

 ** _"_** ** _In short, yes."_**

 _"_ _That's nice to know but how do I use it to help my father?"_

 ** _"_** ** _At the moment we are too weak to create him a new body but there is a way to go around it. You see in order to extend their power and territory the different factions use what we call a Nexus. Those structures are basically souls that are embedded in the ground and transform the area around them to make it more suitable to their owners."_**

 _"_ _Do you suggest that we use this method?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Exactly, we don't have the power to create a complete nexus but it's not required. We can simply implant the soul in the ground and it will suck up the natural energy in the surrounding to grow until the body is considered acceptable and only after that it will start to convert its surrounding."_**

 _"_ _Are you sure there isn't any other way?"_

 ** _"_** ** _You could shelter him until you possess enough power to create a new body but it will take a long time to do so."_**

 _"_ _I see... Let's begin."_

 ** _"_** ** _Let me take over from now, it's a bit soon for you."_**

If there is something that I would never do normally, it's to give the control of my body to Ashkael. Too many things could go wrong and I didn't have enough confidence in her to do so. Murdering innocents in cold blood would probably be easier. The fact that I only hesitated for two second showed how important my father was to me. There was always a pressure at the back of my mind; it wasn't painful, disturbing or even annoying. If I had to compare something to it, it would be the way we cope with our nose. You see, our nose is in the middle of our field of vision but we don't see it because our brain decides to ignore it. The sensation was the same as if my mind chose to ignore the pressure while it always was here. After my moment of mental wandering I concentrated on this part of my mind and willed this restriction away. At the same time I came into contact with something gigantic that dwarfed me by at least a thousand times. The entity's mind felt massive, ancient and completely alien; threatening to crush me by its mere presence. Despite my fear, nothing bad happened and the thing, it was obviously not human, gently took over my body and familiarized itself with the controls. I felt hopeless many times in my life like when my mother died, after Emma's betrayal, inside the locker or when my dad was burned alive; but I only understood the word's true meaning at this moment. It was fucking terrifying, I couldn't feel, see or hear anything; much less moving some part of my body. I didn't have any way to judge the time, I didn't know if seconds or hours had passed as I was alone reflecting on the events of the last few months when the stifling presence finally withdrew and returned to its original place.

 ** _"_** ** _I'm done"_** she started, her voice sounding tired " ** _I finished everything. It was more tiring than expected but it was a success"_**

The first thing I did after getting my body back was to look at the ground and I immediately saw something new. At my feet was a dark red little flame whose size didn't reach my knees. The flame was hot enough to raise the ambient temperature of the room by quite a few degrees and probably reached temperature high enough to melt iron. Despite this it was only warm to me, making me feel comfortable and safe. After some observation I found that the flame originated from a marble that was sunk in the floor. It was black and was only three centimeters in diameter; it gave the impression of a seed as it looked somehow organic. I tried to reach it with my power but got the impression that the soul inside was asleep and couldn't answer me. I could force it to wake up but I didn't know what could be the consequence so I left it alone.

 _"_ _So, did we do everything?"I asked_

 ** _"_** ** _We are nearly done .To end this you just have to put the corpse on the flame and let it be consumed by it. It will give your father the opportunity to recreate his human body at a later date"_**

I did as I was told and watched in fascination as the flame devoured the already charred flesh without emitting any extra heat or producing a single piece of ash or wisp of smoke. The whole process only took one minute and Ashkael started to talk to me just after.

 ** _"_** ** _You should really take your equipment of and go to the shower and we will have our discussion after"_**

Thought I was reluctant to part with dad I nodded my head and started to put my armor on the ground, perfectly aware that I couldn't do anything else for him. I took a hot shower and took a quick look in the mirror. I was as tall as always but I went from scrawny and androgynous to fit with a big enough chests to finally feel like a woman. My body shape was similar to those of professional gymnasts. After putting my pajamas on, I went to kitchen and made some hot chocolate for myself before heading to the salon and crashing on the couch.

 _"_ _Before we start I want to ask you something"_

 ** _"_** ** _What is it?"_**

 _"_ _Look"_ I stated, feeling quite apprehensive about what I was going to do _"_ _at this rate we will be together for a really long time and I would really like to know you more and it doesn't feel right to call you Ashkael and… To make thing simple, can I call you Ash?"_

I wasn't really sure about that. I knew little about her but it was enough to realize that she was old and had a certain amount of pride and that one of the things she cherished the most was her name. It was a memento of the being that gave birth to her and it was a very touchy subject. I really didn't know how she would react to me altering the name.

 ** _"_** ** _I think that's a nice starting point for our future relationship and don't worry, I won't get mad at you for a nickname."_**

I heaved a sigh of relief and finally went to the main subject.

 _"_ _As a starting point, could you tell me about you please? You know quite a bit about me but I don't know a thing about you."_

And so Ashkael told her story. A long time ago, in a different dimension existed nothing but the beings called gods. Among them The Hightfather was the most powerful as he ruled over the sky, light and creation itself. To accompany him he created the angels, beings of pure light whose purity was only dwarfed by their love for their Father. Among them Bethrezen was the Hightfather favorite one and was gifted with the power of creation. With the help of the other gods Bethrezen created Nevandaar, a land of peace and prosperity where humans, elves and dwarves lived in harmony. After contemplating his work one last time, Bethrezen went to seek the Hightfather without knowing that a disaster was coming. The lower angels that envied him because of his status as the creator's favorite son took advantage of his absence and planted the seed of violence, greed and fear in the lower races, turning that once prosperous realm was turned in a land of never-ending war and slaughter. After contemplating his son's creation the Hightfather, thinking that Bethrezen mocked him, struck him down and sealed him under the land, to forever remain in the darkness of his greatest work. Because of this betrayal, the fallen soul was corrupted and in his grief and pain he created a new race at his image. He imprinted them with his hatred of everything that existed and unleashed them on Nevandaar, dooming the realm to never know peace. This new race was called the Legion of the Damned or simply the demons and among their most powerful warriors was a being known as the Chained Guardian, Ashkael.

 ** _"_** ** _And that's the gist of it."_**

 _"_ _I don't know what I expected but I probably wasn't even close to the truth. That aside how did you get here in the first place? And why don't you try to kill everyone?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Let me finish before asking questions. To understand the whole story you need to know that I was the guardian of the Legion and that my task consisted in protecting the demons base of operation. During a conflict with the humans my body was destroyed and my soul was returning to Bethrezen when a teleportation portal close by was destroyed and a breech formed in the space-time continuum that sucked my soul and sent it in-between the world. I was left here for an unknown amount of time until I was pulled in this world and put into your body. When I was ejected from Nevandaar my link to my creator was severed and the burning anger forced on me simply disappeared."_**

 _"_ _Do you regret your home world?"_

 ** _"_** ** _I will never miss anything from that place"_** and for the first time I heard loathing in her tone **_"_** ** _Bethrezen link affected us in many ways. It erased our free will and turned us into mindless and angry puppets to be used as he wished. Do you know how I was treated? Because I was one of the most powerful demons I also possessed a better link with our father and because of that I often lost my sanity and started to attack both allies and enemies without distinction. To avoid more loss, the Bastard chained me to a throne of stone and nailed my armed to the armrest and left me like that for the greater part of six thousand years. So no, I don't miss anything from there and the only regret that I have is to not have been able to kill some people I really wanted to"_**

 _"_ _I thought that I had it bad but it seems that I'm still far from having true issues"_ I responded. After all I was just the target of some bullying and still had my free will.

 ** _"_** ** _Not necessarily"_** she answered ** _,_** _surprising me_ _ **"**_ _ **At least I wasn't betrayed."**_

I fell in a lasting silence, thinking about the betrayer in question. Emma Barnes my former best friend and my tormentor for nearly three years. When we were in middle school we were inseparable, closer than sister. But after my mother died, dad sent me to a ranch for the summer and when I returned she was completely changed and started hanging out with Sophia Hess, another one of my tormentor. When we entered high school the two of them were soon joined by Madison Clement and started a campaign of bullying against me. Madison would use childish prank like putting glue on my seat or stealing my homework while Sophia was more violent, often pushing or tripping me. Finally, Emma used her knowledge on me to hurt me mentally and emotionally. Moreover her dad was a lawyer so the administration of the school chooses to ignore the whole thing and even threatened me with expulsion if I were to continue with "my false accusations" on other "proper member of the community". Swap the previous words with "running my mouth" and "rich and influential people" then you will get the whole story. The only thing that I could thank them for was my triggering as a metahuman. In fact it was during there more extreme "prank" to date that I was joined with Ash and acquired my power. God, if he exists in this world, really has a twisted sense of humor.

 _"_ _You know, before I met you I couldn't stop myself from caring and asking myself what actually happened to change Emma like that, even thought it hurt me more than anything. But since I met you this feeling gradually faded and tonight, after seeing my father die, I finally realized something."_

 ** _"_** ** _Which is?"_**

 _"_ _That only the people that are truly close should have us emotionally invested. If whatever happened was enough to break her friendship for me then she isn't worth the effort. Tonight my father was lying in my arms, his body completely burnt by my fault, and the only thing that mattered to him was my wellbeing. This is love, and I would have done the same thing for her. But not anymore."_

 ** _"_** ** _I don't really know about things like that since I don't have a proper family and you are my sole friend, but I don't think you can compare familial love and friendly love."_**

 _"_ _It doesn't matter anymore. From this day Emma Barnes is a stranger to me."_ the phrase putting an end to our conversation.

I finally went to bed at 5 a.m and fell asleep immediately, dreaming of battle and fire that I would soon forget.

Hello there. I would like to say that I really appreciate the people that took on their time to read my work. I would like to talk about a few things and will start with the story as a whole. I don't even have a general direction of my story, everything that I write is straight out of my head so it may appear chaotic without me noticing so don't hesitate to complain. I don't even have a fragment of experience in writing so feel free to critique but avoid flaming please. For those who are interested the game used in the crossover is Disciple III. The second game was a masterpiece (only my opinion) but the three was disappointing: bugged as hell, absence of true multiplayer mode, lack of the dwarf race and more than anything they changed their trademark gameplay to try taking advantage of another series without succeeding. In other words I only played because I was a fan of the precedent.

For the chapter we have some info dumping with some bullshit power explanation. If you're not interested don't pay attention since it's not necessary to understand the story.

For the interested in the relationship between the game and the wormverese I choose to put a baseline human's stats at 3 everywhere. I also chose to separate divine and healing attributes. Divine attacks work on the principle that an entity applies directly a concept (freezing, burning, death…) at an enemy, bypassing completely their resistance to the physicals and magical phenomenon.

I hope you enjoyed the story and we end the spark chapter now, the next publication with be an intermission with tattletale, dany and halbeard.

Amithaba

Same as the last I only changed a few words.


	4. Chapter 3,5

First I don't own anything. Second I need proof reader so pm me please. Third I hope you enjoy yourselves.

 **"** **Inhuman being talking"**

 _"_ _Mental conversation"_

Emphasis

 **Intermission 1 Guilt**

10 April 2011: Lisa Wilbourn

Lisa was scarred. For the first time since the fucking snake hired her she felt truly scarred. The job was supposed to be a simple one: Hit the ABB casino and run the hell out of here before the Capes showed themselves. The operation started nicely, Grue flooded the casino with darkness and took out the guards as the others stole the prizes and it should have ended like this but no, life had to fuck you up in some way. From what she understood one of the goons was outside the casino when the darkness spread and unlike your stereotypical thug he didn't charge in blindly but actually warned his hierarchy and stayed hidden while keeping them informed. The result was that five minutes after they reached the buildings Oni-fucking-Lee showed up and pursued them for the last fifteen minutes, miraculously keeping up with Angelica and co, and herded them toward a probably pissed and amped up Lung. Their pursuer left them alone only after Regent made him trip during a teleportation that resulted in a brutal face plant on concrete. Even with that it wouldn't keep him away for long and their only option was to take out the Dragon before he grew too much and joined with Lee.

It was during her desperate and futile attempt to create a viable plan to take out Brockton Bay single most powerful parahuman that things turned from lethal to dangerous and weird. At this precise moment the dogs stopped in their tracks while growling toward some point ahead, refusing to move even with Bitch commend. Just twenty seconds after that a big, screaming, trashing thing jumped from a roof and crashed on the asphalt a bit ahead of them. The cause was evident as the person was actually burning with dark red flames that seemed to hurt a lot. It was at this moment that her power kicked in: _Lung, Leader of the ABB, twice as big as a normal human but is regressing, in intense pain, no indication of fire resistance and regeneration below that of a baseline human, cause unknown_ _._ And that made her stop. Don't get her wrong, she was happy that the local tyrant got his ass kicked the night he wanted to kill them and would probably raise her contribution to charities in the future, but she actually couldn't understand what was happening. Her power didn't know and couldn't analyze the now near extinguished flames on his body and that shocked her far more than she would want to admit. You see her power work on the basis of information gathering and extrapolation. It read clues from the environment (likes peoples' micro-expressions) and deduces information from them. If she were to lacks data then her power would spontaneously give her the missing part, thought it would make the chance of being wrong go through the roof. It happened that sometimes she strained her power too much and got a headache that would make her unable to process the information but for the first time her power gave the result "unknown". It seemed to be unable to analyzes, no, to detect the existence of those flames. _Presence of third degree burns on ninety-five percent of the body, temperature of the body is 2400°K and decreasing, subject unconscious, wounds gotten by the crash slowly healing, regeneration still working , came from the east by running in a straight line, threat level inexistent._

"Wow" started Regent "And I thought that dear mommy's warning about playing with fire was overrated."

"You got anything Tat?" asked Grue, visibly shaken by the scene.

Bitch was silent, but her dogs were obviously scarred, and showed it by growling and showing their teeth and only there training was stopping them from running away.

"Nothing really useful, he's Lung there is no doubt about it. He got burned by something that completely bypassed his resistance and suppressed his supernatural healing. The fire is extremely hot, at the level of a blowtorch so don't touch the body if you want to keep your fingers. He's still alive and his healing will prevent his death but he's out for some time."

"That could have gone worse I guess"

"You should say that we got some divine blessing! That guy would have used me as an appetizer if some random cape didn't barbecue him" interrupted the Canadian.

 _No cape declared possessing corresponding power. Power seemingly trumping Lung own with blaster ability shared. High possibility of a new trigger caused by Lung. Lower possibility of a new cape first outing. Least possibility of a non public parahuman._ And there it was. This situation was obviously created because of a parahuman and a powerful one at that. That brought one question to her mind.

"Guys" called the thinker "Should we go meet the perpetrator or just run away? Personally I would like to meet him."

"No way" answered the leader "someone capable of this is too dangerous. I would be the first one to thank him but nearly killing the one that fought an Endbringer to a standstill is proof enough that we should keep far away from him"

We both turned to Regent who simply shrugged.

"I'm equally curious and scared so I'm not voting for this one"

"I want to meet him"

For the first time since the casino, Bitch talked.

"If someone this strong appeared it's better to know him"

 _Curious. Feel indebted and threatened by unknow cape. Wants to meet and gauge new unknown._

"Two to one, that settles it" declared a grinning Lisa "we should head quickly to the east or we might miss tonight star, and I'm not talking about the Heroes that must be rushing here."

The three monster departed with their passenger while the sound of a motorcycle could be heard not that far from here.

…

 _Sometime later_

It was only after a few blocks were between them and the new cape that Lisa relaxed. They had been far too close to a fight to the death than she was comfortable with. At least she got some good info. Whatever material that composed the armor was impervious to her power, just like the flame from before but the girl herself wasn't since she was able to analyze her voice. Besides that, the remnant of the battle showed that their new friend was a minor Alexandria package: she was stronger, faster, tougher and had better reflexes than your average Joe. It was only a supposition but the girl could probably think faster and more efficiently too. As for the girl herself Lisa was divided. On one side this new parahuman had a good moral compass (it wasn't good for them but better in the grand scheme of things) and knew to not see the world in a Cartesian way. On the other side she was obviously mentally instable and just witnessed a close relative (she was not sure since the poor guy looked like a pile of charcoal) being killed before her. Her inhibitions about violence and killing seemed lower than other people and finally Lisa felt, even without the use of her power, that something was fundamentally wrong with the girl.

"Lisa" called Grue, showing how much he had been shocked by using her civilian name "about the corpse …"

"Don't worry about that" she answered "it was Lung that killed him and she made him paid."

"I see" he nearly sighted in relief "she didn't kill him."

Lisa kept to herself that one goon apparently died in their fight.

"Do you think we can recruit her?"

"No, she is clearly on the heroes' side so even if she won't hunt us down it would just be stupid to take her with us. Moreover I don't think that she would work well in a group."

"Too bad, we really lack heavy hitters."

Tattletale knew that the fall of Lung was only the prelude of the storm to come. As for the girl, only time would tell.

10 April 2011: Colin Wallis

Tonight the city was calm, the gangs were keeping a low profile, Collin only encountered some petty crime during his patrol and no parahuman were sighted. That last detail was precisely what worried him; it felt like the calm before the storm and Colin hoped that his preparations would be enough when shit hit the fan. He took three different halberds with him tonight: the multi-purpose, the anti-heavy and his new one that contained a new anesthetic cocktail that should works on Lung.

"Armaster" called Battery "I have something."

"What is it?"

"The heat sensor localized two new heat signatures at proximity on the Docks and we got some call about a cape fight around here. One of them seems to match Lung pattern."

The tinker swore. It would be good if no one died if a fight between Lung and someone that could match him really happened. He really didn't want to have to call some families later. He linked his helmet to the base and downloaded Lung position before using the full power of his bike to rush to the place.

After following the map through the streets for a few minutes, he witnessed a scene that he would never have thought possible. Lung, the Dragon of Kyushu, the one that fought Leviathan as an equal, was lying on the asphalt in his human form with trace of massive burns on all his body. Armaster went to his side and verified that he was actually alive before using his halberd to inject the already unconscious man with a large dose of tranquilizer.

"Battery, I want an ambulance sent on my position for a victim with large third degree burns."

"A victim of Lung?"

"No the wounded is Lung."

A moment of silence passed before his colleague finally understood his paroles.

"WHAT!? How did this happen!? Did you fight him!?"

For a moment Collin was tempted to take credit for the capture, after all such a feat could probably restart his carrier and take him out of this hole. He quickly abandoned the idea, since even thought he already had some idea to spin a credible story that would explain the burns; it wouldn't last against a true investigation. The risks weren't worth it. He then explained everything to Battery and even sent the video of his helmet.

"I see, to think that someone could take out Lung in this town, it seems that a new player joined the game."

"It's probable" answered Armaster "I would like you to call the others for a debriefing in two hours and warn Piggott if possible."

"Ok, I've sent Miss Milita your way and an armored ambulance for Lung."

"I will stay a bit and see if there isn't anyone in need of help in the meantime."

….

 _11 April 2011_

"… and that conclude everything that I saw on the scene. It is now 3 a.m and I think anyone would like to go to sleep so please keep the question to the bare necessary, moreover we will review everything with the wards tomor… tonight" concluded Armaster while looking at the time

The debriefing room was pretty empty at this hour since it was too late for the wards to participate, Assault replaced Battery on the monitor and Miss Milita was still patrolling. As for the participants, Piggot looked like she just got out of bed (which was probably the truth) and the rest were in costumes. Collin nodded his head toward Triumph who had raised his hand.

"I understood everything in the report but I wanted to ask you to clarify a point. In the report you said that a piece of the road was burnt, do you really mean that or did you mean melted?"

"The road was burnt, as in the ground showed trace of combustion, even thought it should not be possible under those conditions. Bitumen boiling point is far lower than its burning point. Those damages weren't caused by normal fire or heat."

"Talking about damages. Do you know what happened to Lung? You wrote that his regeneration wasn't working but he seemed fine when he got here."

"I don't know but his opponent should possess some power capable of nullifying his healing that wore off after the fight. I don't know if the power is linked to the attacks that caused the burn or a separate factor."

"Sorry to interrupt" started Piggot "But I would like to go to the main point of the day. What do you think about the new cape?"

"I don't have enough data to be sure but I would give him a rating of 6 as blaster, and a solid 3 as a brute and an unknown as a shaker."

"Why so low? Someone that could take Lung is probably worth more than a 3"

"For the blaster rating it probably warrants a higher number but as I said I don't have much data so I'm being conservative. The fight was short and Lung didn't grow much so a 3 as a brute is reasonable. As for the shaker rating I couldn't analyze the metal found on the scene. I only know it's not of natural origin"

"Not of natural origin?" quipped Velocity.

"It's not composed of elements found on earth." clarified the Tinker

"I see" responded Piggot, closing her eyes with a sight.

The silence was uncomfortable but nobody wanted to be the one to break it. Five minutes elapsed before the director continued.

"I will ask Milita later since she is probably more qualified, but what are your thought on the newcomer personality?"

Armaster thought deeply before answering. He didn't really want to be in the shadow of a new member that would probably become The Bay new star after taking down Lung. Despite that, the risks of losing this new player to the gangs were far too great and didn't allow him to be selfish.

"There was a dead on the location of the fight, one of the A.B.B, but the others just had concussion and some burns. Moreover the person didn't finish of Lung. From that I think it's someone that is not afraid of dirtying its hand but not a cold blooded murderer. It's someone that we could try to recruit."

"Yes, it would be nice to have another heavy hitter to the team. Do you have anything to add?"

"No"

"Then this debrief is finished, try to get some sleep before your patrols."

As everyone went to their occupation, Colin couldn't suppress some seeds of doubt. The truck that left those melted remnant was probably just caught in the fight, there wasn't any indices to any other possibilities. Despite all of this, the hero known as Armaster couldn't shake off the impression that he missed something. Maybe Dragon could help him figure it out? He already needed her help for his Endbringer Detection System so asking for a bit more help couldn't hurt. He first took the way to his room but decided to head for his Lab. Those pieces of metal were far too interesting for him to sleep.

11 April 2011: Daniel Hebert (First person)

I felt nothing. The Burning Agony from before had stopped and a lethargic nothingness took a hold of me. It was at this moment that I started to think. Where did it go all wrong? Was it when I realize that Tay had power and didn't do anything? When she got her power? Or was it the locker and the bullying? Or even before that when Annette died? It then hit me even harder than Lung attacks: I was the main culprit. Sure those little bitches from Winslow had a part in this but I now realized just how much I left Taylor alone.

After the death of my wife I became bitter and turned into a workalcoholic. I wasn't able to break from my depression and it led me to ignore my daughter. I didn't even see that something was wrong at school! And it lasted for the last two years! SHIT! Worst of all I didn't even realize that her relationship with Emma had crumbled into pieces. Talking about the Barnes, if I ever see Allan again I will sell him to the merchant for their hobo fights. At least his life will be useful for something.

Then the Locker happened. If I had to compare it to something then I would say that I was in a coma and the incident woke me up but I had been immobilized so long that I didn't know how to move properly. My little Owl has been sequestered into a space as big as a closet with "biohazard" for THREE-FUCKING-DAYS! And the worst was that the school didn't do anything else than threatening to file a complaint for false accusation and degradation of school property. It was after this moment that I tried to reconnect with Taylor. After she left the hospital where she stayed three days I started to pass some time with her. I took a few days off, keeping her company while she stayed at home and talked with her, apologizing for my attitude. I decided to not ask about school and wait for her to tell me. She finally returned to school and while she was still bullied it seems it was getting better. Time passed and it was two month after all of this that I received my second shock. On this day I decided to clean and organize the old basement when I found some sort of armor pieces. It took me a while before I was able to understand the implication of such thing. I really tried to deny it, telling myself that it was for a school project or that she decided to prepare a carnival costume in advance; but in the end I decided to stop my attempt at running away and to face reality. Taylor was a cape. I passed the rest of the day asking myself how to react to this. Should I try to ask her? Or try to force her to stop? The only thing I was sure was that Taylor had yet to go out since the media would have relayed the news of a new cape appearing. In the end I decided to wait and see. I placed some hidden motion sensors (courtesy of a young dockworker skilled in electronics) in the basement linked to a bip that I kept on me. One month passed and nothing happened so I started to hope that she wouldn't actually do it when the night started. The strident biping woke me. I opened the door and not even five minutes after, I was able to hear the back door slowly closing. I then rushed down to the ground floor and left the house. I headed for a small parking where I left an old truck of the association that was used to move heavy materials trough the town when we still had works. I, unsurprisingly, wasn't able to find Taylor (I didn't even know her powers). It was near midnight when the trafficked radio connected to the police canal (courtesy of the same dockworker) signaled a fight between Lung and an unidentified cape on the docks. My whole body froze for a moment when I imagined my little baby facing that beast. I headed for the place at max speed while praying that nothing happened to her. When I saw the Dragon standing before an armored figure I accelerated like a madman and slammed my vehicle in the villain. By some miracle I was barely winded by the crash so I detached my seatbelt and jumped out to run toward my daughter. I was only able to speak a few words before pain overtook my consciousness. My memories were less and less distinct and my mind was muddled. I was barely able to feel Taylor taking me in her arms. I then tried to reassure her:

"Don't worry little owl, everything will be fine"

"You can't die dad. You can't leave me alone. Without you and mom I won't have anything left."

"You can't say that Taylor" I answered, knowing that even in death I failed her "you must be strong … And live your life as you want. Sadly we won't be able to see you grow into a woman."

It was truly my biggest regret; I would pay any price to see her grow up.

"No,no,no,no! I will bring you to Panacea and she will heal you."

"It's too late. Please, don't give up and be happy"

My consciousness started to fade and I could feel my life slowly draining out of me. What seemed to be hours passed before a violent pain woke me up I stared at Taylor before asking:

"What do you want Taylor?"

"Dad, I will ask you something extremely important, even if you think that it's utter nonsense, please answer as if it was real. I want you to promise me."

"I promise you" it was more and more difficult to think.

"Daniel Heber. Do you swear to give me your soul; to look after and protect me until either one of us disappears in the sand of time? "

It took me some times to understand the words but I didn't hesitate once it was done.

"Yes, I do."

And at this moment the human being known as Daniel Hebert died.

 **Author notes:**

I had a really hard time writing this chapter. Tattletale wasn't much of a problem but Armaster was a pain in the ass since I have a hard time understanding his mind state. I probably messed him up despite my effort. For Danny it took me a long time to abandon the third person view point for the first.

Nothing much to say beside one question: What path will Taylor take? There are villains, Hero, lawful vigilant or violent vigilant.

As always thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed yourself.

Amithaba

Changed some of the effect of Taylor power on Lung and erased Armaster snapping at Battery.


	5. Chapter 4

First I don't own anything. Second I need proof reader so pm me please. Third I hope you enjoy yourselves.

 **"** **Inhuman being talking"**

 _"_ _Mental conversation"_

Emphasis

 **Chapter 4 spark 1.4**

11 April 2011

I woke up at 12 a.m and the first thing I did was to head to the basement. The air was obviously hotter than last night but it didn't affect me in any way. The seed had grown from a few centimeters to a dozens and the flames reached a meter in height. After I was assured that there was no problem I went upstairs and started preparing my breakfast. I didn't try anything since I knew that dad was still too weak to communicate with me. I looked at the T.V while munching on my cereals when I received a pleasant surprise while watching the News started. Lung arrest obviously made the headlines but the thing that caught my attention was that the Protectorate actually didn't take the credit for it and even asked the new parahuman to contact them. I started to seriously think about it and decided to see if my partner had any advice for me.

 _"_ _Ash, what do you think about this?"_

 ** _"_** ** _You will have to be more precise."_**

 _"_ _Let's start by the Protectorate attitude. I thought they would have attributed themselves Lung defeat."_

 ** _"_** ** _If they had actually met you or knew more about your powers they might have done so. For them you are actually a rogue parahuman that can take the strongest cape of the bay in a straight fight with unknown abilities._** _ **They don't know how you would react if they stole your prize. Moreover you didn't kill Lung and, excluding an unlucky bastard, you didn't hurt anyone too much. This means that you are not another dangerous maniac and from what you told me they need every little help they can find."**_

I winced at the mention at my involuntary first kill. I didn't really think before pouncing on Lung and that poor guy paid the price. I found it strange that I wasn't more affected by this but I didn't want to think about it.

" _I get should I answer to their invitation?"_

 ** _"_** ** _I will oversimplify it but we need to take some times to seriously think about it later. If you join them you will get more resource and the public opinion will be with you but you can say goodbye to your freedom and some aspect of your power will be restricted."_**

 _"_ _And if I don't?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Well, if you work with them then you will have access to some resources like a direct contact with the police and you will retain more of your freedom but both the public and the protectorate itself will probably think that you have something to hide and they will be wary of you. Finally if you decide to work alone you will be able to do what you want but they will depict you as another opportunist wanting a piece of Brockton for himself. In the last case they will probably avoid open hostility unless you don't give them another choice. I don't know their internal policies and the personalities of their leaders so I can't be sure but this should be a good summary."_**

I sighted as the different possibilities appeared in my mind. I decided to procrastinate and put that problem in a corner of my head.

 _"_ _Just as you say we will need to talk about it seriously later but I don't think that Ashkael will soon appear in the Bay."_

 ** _"_** ** _You want to use my name?"_**

 _"_ _Can I please? All the other names I thought of are either already taken or sound pretty bad like Dante or Mephistopheles. My power comes from you and nobody knows your history here so I think it is a good idea to use it for my nocturnal activities."_

 ** _"_** ** _I don't have any problems with it but since you're talking about activities, will you go to school?"_**

 _"_ _Not as long as my father can't protect himself."_

 ** _"_** ** _Won't they call to know where you are?"_**

I frowned when Winslow was brought up. Luckily their devil-may-care attitude would profit me for once, but a problem remained.

 _"_ _Not a problem, they won't even know I'm no there. My dad situation is more problematic since he never is late or absent from his work. I can take care of it if they call but a visit would be dangerous"_

 ** _"_** ** _Don't worry; hypnotizing some normal peoples should be easy. They will remember that they saw a bedridden Danny that had a hard time to even talk."_**

 _"_ _Thank you that will make things easier"_

I immediately called the Dockworker association and told them that my Dad fainted this morning and had a high fever and that I had to stay at home to take care of him since he refused to go to the hospital. Knowing my father stubbornness they didn't question me and wished us a good day. After taking care of that I once again went to the basement and only stopped a few second to gaze at the seed before taking out my broken armor. It was originally dark grey without any mark, just a simple suit of armor. Despite that it was solid, light and made me impervious to any kind of fire.

 ** _"_** ** _You want to repair it?"_**

 _"_ _No, just like you said before the fight, it's not even a third rate product. Since I will not go out for some time I want to enhance it or even create a brand new one if necessary."_

 ** _"_** ** _A good start, do you want me to do it?"_**

 _"_ _No even if it takes more time I want to get used to my power."_

I closed my eyes and concentrated. I envisioned the simplest part of the armor, the helm, nothing too complicated since it was just a big cylinder with a long slit for the eye and some holes for the mouth. I suddenly felt a slight drain in my energy reserve and a weight in my hands. I opened my eyes only to find a blob of metal that vaguely looked like a tumor. I let my failure fall on the floor before sighting.

 ** _"_** ** _I don't see what you were trying to create. It actually reminds me of a spider's egg."_**

 _"_ _You mean an oversized spider egg?"_

 ** _"_** ** _No. It would even be on the bottom end of the size scale. Those things tend to get really big when they reach maturity."_**

 _"_ _Don't get into the details; I want to have a long and tranquil sleep tonight."_

 ** _"_** ** _You're sure you don't want to know about Arthra?"_**

 _"_ _If I say no you will just pester me so go for it."_

 ** _"_** ** _It was an old spider, the legend says that it was the only surviving firstborn giant spider. That thing was so massive that it regularly caught dragons and krakens in its web. One day the undead tried to force it to submit since the poison would be nearly ineffective and the web didn't restrain ghost."_**

 _"_ _And the result?"_

 ** _"_** ** _They didn't even get to force it to this point. It just crushed them with brute force. The lich that protected their regional capital was one-shoted, the city razed and the region turned in the biggest spider nest in the world."_**

I actually shivered at that thought. I wasn't particularly afraid of insects, spiders and the others creepy-crawlers but the image of a five story tall spider would give some shivers to anyone with a normally developed survival instinct. I quickly changed the subject before hearing another real version of a third rate horror movie.

 _"_ _Could you please help me with my training and stop the nightmare inducing story please? I don't think I can make fast progress without help."_

 ** _"_** ** _Took you long enough."_**

 _"_ _Wait… you messed with me just because I didn't ask you for help?"_

 ** _"_** ** _It really was a waste of resource, had you asked me earlier I wouldn't have been this bored. That aside, do you want to waste some more time? I never showed you the effects of Necromancy practice on the human body. "_**

 _"_ _Ok, you can stop. I really need your help on this one. Please."_

 ** _"_** ** _It lacks sincerity, but I will grant your request. Joke aside, your problem isn't your technique itself but simply your practice. Unlike fire that's simply a manifestation of energy, you want to create a solid object. For this you need to form a perfect image of the objet in your head. In order to train you should start with some simple form like a sphere, a cube or some others."_**

I sighted again, happy to have escaped from the horror version of The Chronicle of Nevandaar and a bit desperate in face of the monstrous training that awaited me. I once again concentrated on my hand before thinking about a perfect sphere, starting a daily practice that would become a ritual that would follow me for the rest of my life.

 _…_ _._

Six hours later:

I finally stopped after a few hours, covered in sweat and probably smelling like an unwashed pair of sport socks.

 _"_ _I didn't think it would be this tiring."_

I looked around me, seeing the different pieces of metal that resulted from my training piled on the floor. You could see the progression clearly, with tumor-like pieces of metal at the bottom of the pile and some seemingly geometrically correct object at the top.

 ** _"_** ** _Holding a perfect image in your mind is actually far more difficult and tiring than you would think. Beside some peoples that possess advantages like an eidetic memory, it is a question of months or even years of training. Even with your powers it will take a few days to get the expected result."_**

 _"_ _I see. Should I keep this pile of waste? There is at least a few hundred kilos and I don't know if it can be useful."_

 ** _"_** ** _You can either store it for when we will need a big amount to arm subordinates for example or you can give it to your father to consume since it's a manifestation of your power."_**

I immediately started to transfer the metal to the flame area and I could actually see the closest pieces melt and flow toward the seed at a slow pace.

 _"_ _If he can absorb it, can't I do the same?"_

 ** _"_** ** _You could but the efficiency would just be horrible. You wouldn't even get a tenth of the expanded energy while an organism specialized on gathering like him can extract all of it. The result would be better this way since you can freely transfer energy between him and you with a touch."_**

 _"_ _There is a whole set of law behind magic and energy manipulation isn't it?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Yup and you will have to learn them in due time."_**

 _"_ _I'm drowning happiness."_ I put an end to the dialogue with a flat tone _._

14 April 2011:

I followed a strict training regimen for the following days. I would wake up at 4 in the morning and go see my father before starting my physical training followed by fighting lessons. It seems that my power helped with my growth since a few days of exercises gave visible raise in my body fitness and my technique. After the diner I would practice on the control of my powers like pyrokinesis, material creation and soul control. It was on the third day that a change broke the routine, the seed that housed my father's soul showed a big change.

This morning I woke up to a strange feeling, it was as if something called to me.

 ** _"_** ** _It seems that your father is about to wake up."_**

Those last days it had been growing pretty fast thanks to all the metals that I gave it, the flame stopped burning while the seed reached one meter and half in height. Just as I rushed down the stairs to the basement, I took notice of a sound similar to that of a watermelon being crushed. I arrived just as the bulging seed was torn apart and a wave of heat hit me in the face. The new entity looked like the seed was cut in two vertically and gave birth to two slabs of solid rocks with one being bigger than the others (I would later tell myself that it looked like a shellfish with two asymmetrical shells). Each of those slabs was dark grey and, despite being hard as rock, had the texture of leather and felt alive. They were composed of thick branches like growth that were weaved together to form a cocoon and both part ended in a sharp and pointy edges. Inside the burst chrysalis, I could see a beautiful crimson flame. This flame seemed alive and was obviously extremely hot; it radiated feelings of happiness and confusion.

 _"_ _What is this?"_

 ** _"_** ** _It's called a spark. It's essentially a vessel of power that converts the surrounding territory for its master."_**

Seeing that I was caught in my thoughts and didn't answer, Ash edged me on:

 ** _"_** ** _He just woke up so he's probably disoriented. You should communicate with him. Start with simple thoughts."_**

I hesitantly put my hand on the shell and immediately felt the familiar presence of my father. A great weight that I didn't know was there vanished from my shoulders and I burst into tears that quickly turned into sobs. I was finally able to be with him again. For the last few days I never stopped thinking about what happened, what could have happened and what could happen: I should have stopped Lung; I should have been more attentive of him; I should have talked to him. And what if we couldn't save him? What if he received some irremediable damages…?

Despite Ash assurance I constantly tortured myself until today. The moment I posed my palm on him I knew: It is my father. Following my emotional outburst I quickly reassured my father by showing him images of what happened the last few days. After a long and clumsy conversation with him during which I confirmed that he didn't show any sign of damage like amnesia and during which he confirmed that I was safe and well I separated from him and thanked Ashkael.

 _"_ _Thank you. I can't say it enough but Thank you. I know it may sound a bit… paranoid, but life was always a bitch with me so I couldn't suppress some seed of doubt that it would fail or that you would betray me. So I say it again, thank you for proving me wrong."_

A couple of hours passed during which I stayed with my father and communicated with him. It took some times since we couldn't communicate with words but it was probably the best exchange we had in years. I also found out that I was permanently linked with him and that the difficulty in communication increased with distance though Ash assured me that the range would get better with experience and power. It was late in the afternoon that both she and I had one of the most important talks, if not the most, of my life.

 ** _"_** ** _Taylor, we need to talk"_**

I was getting to go to bed when she abruptly started the conversation.

 _"_ _About what?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Our future."_**

Sensing the serious and long talk coming, I went to the kitchen and took a glass of milk before sitting down.

 _"_ _If it's about me being a cape, I won't stop. Even after everything that happened I will still continue to do it so that it doesn't happen to others."_ I started with a firm tone _._

 ** _"_** ** _Will you at least listen to me and prepare yourself better before going back to vigilantism?"_**

 _"_ _Don't worry about that, I don't plan on going out as a cape before more training and information gathering"_

 ** _"_** ** _Talking about information, do you plan on contacting the Undersiders? I know you don't want to associate yourself with villains but they could prove to be useful."_**

I lightly bit my lips and thought about it before nodding.

 _"_ _Yes they were active way before me so any tips they can give me could be useful. Moreover they are actually low profile and don't gives the vibes of "true villains". I will do it after our conversation. Now can you tell me what you want to talk about? It isn't like you to be roundabout when it concerns our lives."_

 ** _"_** ** _Do you remember my explanation about souls and contract?"_**

 _"_ _Yes but what does it have to do with this… Wait. Do you want me to_ _Enslave_ _more people!?"_

 ** _"_** ** _Yes"_**

 _"_ _You got to be kidding me! Not only does it violate at least half of my personal convictions, do you know what kind of shitstorm we will take if someone ever learns that I can enslave people at will? The lightest consequence would be the birdcage and the worst would be me in a basement drugged and forced to use my powers for other people benefits!"_

I swore for a few more instants before breathing deeply and calming down.

 ** _"_** ** _Even if you call it slavery, they keep their original personality and memories and gain more strength and ability. Some of them will even develop parahuman power and all of that in exchanges for their loyalty. You don't even have to restrain their freedom"_**

 _"_ _More absolute obedience then loyalty. It's a definite no. I will not enslave other people."_

 ** _"_** ** _Even if it's beneficial for them or the others? By doing this you can heal the wounded, stabilizes the insane and restrain the criminal without killing them."_**

I could see the image clearly; I would be seen as the new messiah and I would bring peace and prosperity to the world. I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts

 _"_ _No means no. I will take a life if necessary but I will not take away peoples free will."_

 ** _"_** ** _It can't be called taking their free will if they are willing. You need their permission in order to establish the contract. As long as you explain them the situation before they will know what they are getting into."_**

Saying that I wasn't tempted would be lying. After all there were many advantages for me. Having more subordinates means that I would be able to form my own organization and I would grow more powerful with each person that joined me but the most important thing in my eyes was that I would never be betrayed. The only thing that truly held me back wasn't sense of justice (it stayed in the locker) but a memory of my mother telling me to do what is good.

Feeling my hesitation Ash pressed the subject:

 ** _"_** ** _Do you think that you can change anything on your own? Even with my help your limit would put you on the same level as the triumvirate at most. Don't even dream on reaching the same levels as the S class threat without relying on others to raise your power. The definition of power is the ability to change and influence the world around you. Without enough power, any amount of efforts will fail to change the Bay."_**

I stayed silent. She was right and I knew it.

 ** _"_** ** _Taylor, as you are now you won't be able to protect your father. You need help."_**

My resolve finally broke at the mention of my father.

 _"_ _Let me think about it. I will give you my answer before the next time I'm out as a cape."_

 ** _"_** ** _Just tell me when you fell ready"_**

I pondered a long time before succumbing to sleep. The news of the day showed the successful arrest of the Undersiders during a failed attempt at robbing Brocton Bay Central Bank. Only Hellhound was able to break the Wards encirclement and run away.

16 April 2011:

The following days were a blur. The only thing I did besides training my powers and close combat skills was talking with my father. Our clumsy communication from the beginning was quickly replaced with normal conversation.

 _"_ _Taylor, I know that you hate school. But as your father I can't agree to you completely dropping out of school"_

After the initial joy of being together again, Dad quickly learned of my refusal to go to school and took it upon himself to convince me to go back there to at least finish my curriculum.

 _"_ _And I already told you that I will stay at home until you can take care of yourself."_

 _"_ _You shouldn't worry about me if anyone were to enter the basement I can burn him to a crisp unless it's a cap. And that's not very likely to happen."_

If there was something that my father had in common with Ashkael, beside their protective streak, it was their ability to beat me in any verbal argument we had. Since he woke up my father became stronger and even manifested some pyrokinesis. It was limited to the basement but it was powerful enough to give anyone without protection some third degree burns. I was completely aware of this fact and his security didn't really concern me since his new body could take a good amount of punishment. The thing that scared me was the change that slowly took place in him. A few days ago, the idea of killing someone would have repulsed him while he talked about it freely now. I could feel that it wasn't some thoughtless speech but the declaration of a fact.

I was about to answer when I heard a faint sound followed by some vibrations. I left my father and went to the ground floor just in time to see a picture of a gasmask-wearing cape whose name was apparently Bakuda.

"… and it seems she will continue to detonate bombs every hour until the Protectorate release Lung. Our information indicates that Bakuda is a tinker whose specialty is explosives and so is more dangerous than the average bomber. Five locations have already been hit including Andrew Hawke's square, Winslow high-school as well as …"

I stopped listening after that. All things considered I was less happy than I thought I would be after hearing of Winslow sudden destruction. Sure, I didn't care about the staff, the gang recruits or my tormentors but the majority was just people that tried to stay low profile and were too afraid to become the next victims of the bullying to help me. They didn't deserve a wannabe terrorist destroying their lives.

 _"_ _I will go to Winslow and see what I can do to help."_

 ** _"_** ** _Didn't you promise me to stay away from the cape scene until you were better prepared?"_**

 _"_ _Don't worry; I will only go as Taylor, not as Ashkael."_

I informed my father about the situation and left the house while he supplied me to stay at home. I ran fast, my speed at the limit of what a human is capable and reached the school in fifteen minutes. On the way I saw half a dozen plumes of smoke billowing toward the sky, without a doubt the result of Bakuda work. I also crossed few people running away tough I surprisingly didn't see any gang members. Some place showed trace of looting but it was still occasional, something that would change as time went on.

I finally arrived at school and stopped before a beautiful but terrible spectacle. Half of the school ground had been turned into glass. Everything caught in a sphere of fifty meters in diameters had been transmuted into transparent glistening crystal be it the ground, the building, the tree… or the peoples. A dozens of statue were visible, students or teacher frozen in their daily activities. The cops and the firefighters cordoned off the school and stopped the amassed crowd from entering the area.

I went and asked if I could help in any way.

"We normally wouldn't allow anyone on the scene but we know that there aren't any other devices we are already stretched thin because of the A.B.B so volunteer are accepted. You must hand us your phone and put your name in the list and you're good to go."

I did as I was told and joined a group of five peoples who were taught the basic security rules before heading for the gymnasium. I didn't find anything noteworthy beside a couple of statue before I heard a groan. I ran in the storage local and immediately found the source of the sound. There, with his arm fused to the wall was Greg Veder.

 **Author notes:**

I don't have much to say this time. I jumped a few days and started slow but I think that Taylor needed some time to deal with her father accidents. As for my inactivity… I had a severe case of sloth those last month so I didn't do much. Anyway all critics are welcomes and I hope you had a good time.

Amithaba


End file.
